29-30 October 2015, Birmingham City University
Following the dynamic emergence of punk in the UK, USA and Europe in the 1970s, the subculture spread widely. As punk and new wave gained commercial and critical success, together with an attractive notoriety, it soon began an ongoing journey around the globe – both as a product and as an ideology. Punk, then, despite its omnipresence in contemporary underground and popular cultures, is clearly more than legacy music. More than forty years after the proto-punk progenitors of Detroit and New York unconsciously launched an underground revolution, to continue what some of the 60’s and 70’s anarchic counter culture propagated, and after untold premature obituaries, it appears that punk – in terms of music, philosophy, and identity – remains in rude health.
Punk scenes continue to thrive as far afield as Russia, South America, India, China, Japan, the Middle East and Indonesia – 2011 saw the first official Saudi Arabian punk record release, while other scenes have established their mark in Madagascar, Algeria, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, even Tibet and the Himalayas. Nearer to home, an underground punk scene never actually went away and continues to ‘mutate and survive’- ranging from the continued support for longstanding bands and scenes to the network of small-scale gigs, fanzines, music distribution, (sub)cultural and political activities of a truly cross-generational subculture.
This joint conference and postgraduate symposium seeks to illuminate the current landscape of contemporary punk in all of its global, musical, political and (sub)cultural manifestations
For more information and the programme please visit https://psnpunknow.wordpress.com/